Anybody who is affected positively or negatively, by doing a project or by delaying a project is a stakeholder. From a project management context, the main stakeholders are;
- Owner of the project
- Contractor
- Sub-contractors
- Consultants
- Government agencies
- Suppliers
- Political leaders
- Local citizens
- Environmentalists
- Social groups etc
The first step in stakeholder analysis is to prepare a stakeholder list or register. After preparing the stakeholder register, the next step is to classify them based on their interest in the project and their power to influence the project outcomes.
- The high power, high interest group must be managed very closely
- High power, low interest group must be kept satisfied
- The high interest, low power category must be kept informed
- Low power, Low interest group must be monitored without spending much effort
After classifying the stakeholders into these four categories, the next step is to develop strategies to deal with them.